State Duma passes bill banning propaganda of homosexuality among children in first reading

Jan 25, 2013

RBTH

Interfax

The State Duma passed the bill banning the propaganda of homosexuality among minors in the first reading on Friday.

The document proposes amendments to the Code of Administrative Violations, in accordance with which citizens can be fined 4,000 to 5,000 rubles for promoting homosexuality among children. Similar actions are punishable by a fine of 40,000 to 50,000 rubles for officials and 400,000 to 500,000 rubles for legal entities.

The document was submitted to the State Duma by the Legislative Assembly of the Novosibirsk region in March 2012.

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A total of 388 deputies voted for the bill, one voted against it and one abstained from voting.

The State Duma committee on family, women and children, which is in charge of passing the bill in the State Duma, backed the bill and recommended that the State Duma pass it in the first reading, on condition that amendments are made to it in the second reading. For example, the committee believes the term "propaganda of homosexuality" needs specification.

"In particular, it would be expedient to specify the disposition of the article proposed by the bill, envisioning that propaganda of homosexuality among minors is expressed in the organization, in places accessible to children, of entertainment events involving homosexuals, in calls for and approval of homosexual relations on television and radio at times accessible to children," the committee said in its comments to the bill.

The committee believes this needs to be taken into account when the document is prepared for the second reading.

Positive comments on this document have been received from 47 regions, the committee said.

Human rights activists earlier issued a statement, which was signed by the Moscow Helsinki Group, the International Young People's Human Rights Movement and the Russian LGBT chain, saying they find the bill in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights.

In the meantime, legislative acts against such propaganda have already been adopted at the local level in some regions of Russia, including in the Ryazan, Arkhangelsk, Kostroma, and Novosibirsk regions, and also in St. Petersburg.